USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey : from its earliest settlement to the present time : including a brief historical account of the first discoveries and settlement of the country, Vol. II > Part 16
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Washington's victories at Trenton and Princeton, near the close of the year, again aroused the hopes of the Americans. The timid inhabitants, who had been forced into submission by the presence of the enemy, now took courage. The base and treacherous men who had given aid and comfort to the public enemy were compelled to withdraw from the State, and a large majority of the people who had held fast to the cause they had espoused, were now filled with hope for a speedy deliverance from the hand of the oppressor.
The action of the State authorities was immediately resumed, and the Legislature summoned to meet at Pittstown on the 22d of January, 1777. The Governor congratulated the members on the great success of the American armies in the State, and declared that there was no reason to be dispirited in the contest unless the people and government were wanting to themselves.
Before the Houses had fairly entered upon business it was rumored that the enemy were marching southward. The Legis-
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lature therefore adjourned to Haddonfield on the 29th of January. At this session Robert Morris was appointed Chief-Justice, Isaac Smith, Second Justice, and John Cleves Symmes, Third Justice, in place of Hopkinson, who had been chosen a member of the Continental Congress.
The Legislature found great difficulty in framing a militia law, that would insure an armed force for the defence of the State, and at the same time respect the rights of the very large class of citizens who from conscientious scruples could not engage in war. The bill provided that all able-bodied men should be en- rolled, and that those whose religious obligations prevented them from entering the army might pay a sum of money to be released from actual service.
An act was passed establishing a Council of Safety, to consist of twelve members who, with the Governor, were vested with power and authority to administer the affairs of the State in times of invasion, or where it was impracticable to call a session of the Legislature. This body was clothed with almost unlimited powers. It might order the arrest of suspicious and dangerous persons in the State, correspond with Congress and with other States, and transact any business necessary for the public good. It could call out the militia to resist invasion or to suppress in- . surrection, and do whatever in the judgment of the Governor and the Council of Safety might be necessary to protect the in- habitants in their lives and property.
A bill was passed for the support of government, which pro- vided that the pay of the Governor should be £600 per annum ; that of the Chief-Justice, £300; of the Second Justice, £250; the Third Justice, £200; the Attorney-General, £40; the Treasurer, {80; the Clerk of the Circuit Courts, £50; the Clerk of the Council, fourteen shillings per day, and four pence per sheet, ninety words to the sheet ; the Clerk of the House of Assembly, fourteen shillings per day, and four pence per sheet, ninety words to the sheet; the Doorkeeper, five shillings per day, and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, three shillings. Each Delegate in Congress was to receive twenty shillings a day ; each Member of the State Council, ten shillings, and each Mem- ber of the Assembly, eight shillings.
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After a short recess the Legislature reconvened at Haddonfield on the 7th of May, 1777. At this session severe penalties were enacted for the punishment of all persons who should in any way give aid or encouragement to the enemy. In laying before the House the conduct of the Tories and banditti of the northern counties, Governor Livingston said : "The enemy being deter- mined to contaminate the British name with every species of infamy rather than abandon their frantic purpose of enslaving a free and unoffending people, have lately adopted the base and unmanly practice of encouraging our own rebellious subjects to kidnap the members of our Legislature. In pursuance of this system, a band of rebels of the County of Bergen have surprised in his bed, and with brutal violence hurried to New York, the honorable John Fell, Esq., an aged and venerable member of the Legislative Council of this State, and there delivered him into the hands of the British tormentors. The treatment he is likely to meet with we may easily imagine to ourselves from the most · authentic proofs how others of our people less obnoxious to their resentment have been used by them. To check the further prosecution of this dishonorable plan, and in justice to the un- fortunate sufferer himself (of whose meritorious services to his country none of us are ignorant), as well as in vindication of the honor of this State, I would earnestly recommend it to you, in conjunction with the Council, to consent by resolution that the Governor and Council of Safety do forthwith cause to be appre- hended and imprisoned, such and so many of the nominal Coun- cil of his Britannic Majesty within this State, and disaffected to it, with as many other disaffected persons as they shall think suffi- cient to induce the enemy to release the said John Fell; and them to treat in like manner as he shall be treated, until they agree either to exchange or discharge him."
The Governor and Council of Safety were authorized to arrest and imprison as many persons known to be disaffected in the State, as might be thought sufficient to induce the enemy to release such of the patriotic citizens as had been kidnapped and carried off ; also to arrest and imprison all suspicious persons. An act was passed confiscating the personal estates of all who had deserted to the enemy, unless they should within a stated
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period return and renew their allegiance to the State. This in- duced many who had already become sensible of their error, and who had been deceived by the enemy, to petition to be . restored to citizenship. On the 7th of June the Legislature adjourned.
When the members again convened at Haddonfield on the 3d of September, Governor Livingston congratulated them on the victory of the Americans at Bennington, and on the successful resistance made against the march of General Burgoyne's army down the Hudson. The efforts of the Legislature at this session were devoted to raising money to defray the expenses of the State, and to the remodeling of the militia law. An act was passed continuing the Council of Safety, and authorizing them to give relief to officers and privates of the militia who had been disabled in public service, and to the widows of those that had been killed. An act for the punishment of high treason pre- scribed that when any one should be convicted the punishment should be the same as in the case of murder. On the 24th of September the Legislature adjourned to meet on the 29th of the same month at Princeton.
On the 14th of October, 1777, members of a new Legislature were chosen, and it convened at Trenton on the 28th of the same month. The Houses organized by the reelection of the old officers, and on the Ist of November William Livingston was unanimously reelected Governor. Events of the utmost im- portance to the State and to the whole country were now taking place. The British had successfully invaded Pennsylvania from the south, and had entered Philadelphia. Detachments were thrown across the Delaware to protect the foraging parties of the enemy that scoured the lower counties. As an offset to these misfortunes, the Northern army had captured the splendid army of the enemy commanded by Burgoyne. The efforts of the government were devoted chiefly to preparing for a vigorous campaign in the opening of the following year, when the British were to be driven from the State. The enemy took up his win- ter quarters in Philadelphia, and the American army was at Valley Forge.
On the 15th of November the Continental Congress had per-
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fected a plan for the perpetual Union of the thirteen States into a confederacy, under the name of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. This plan was sent to the several States to receive their sanction. It was submitted to the Legislature of New Jersey on the 14th of December. The early adjournment pre- vented immediate action on this matter, but on the 26th of February, 1778, the articles were read and entered upon the journal, and on the 25th of March committees were appointed to consider the subject and make report thereon. These reported the result of their deliberations to the Legislature on the 15th of June. The whole subject had been carefully considered, and several important alterations recommended. These alterations were adopted by the Legislature and forwarded to the Continen- tal Congress. Other changes had been recommended by the different States. Congress, however, rejected all these, and adopted the Articles of Confederation as they had been origin- ally sent out.
The members of the Legislature elected in October, 1778, met at Trenton on the 27th of that month, and organized by reappoint- ing the old officers. Governor Livingston was also reelected. The first act of this session was the ratification of the Articles of Confederation ; the delegates from this State in Congress were directed to sign them It was to this Legislature that the peti- tion from the New Jersey troops, and the letter from General Maxwell, before mentioned, were sent, and the labor of pro- viding remedies for the extreme wants of the soldiers constituted the chief work of both Houses until their adjournment.
The Continental Congress had called upon the several States to raise by taxation large sums of money to pay the expenses of the war. This subject was brought before the Legislature of New Jersey in May, 1779. An act was then passed to raise the sum of £1,000,000, which was to be collected and paid into the treasury before the Ist of December of that year. Of this sum, £401, 250 was to be paid to Congress. The balance was reserved for the use of the State government. The Legislature during this and the two following years was given up almost wholly to schemes for raising money to defray the war expenses of the State, and to contribute to the general fund demanded by the Continental Congress.
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On the 4th of May, 1782, the act of the British Parliament to enable the King to conclude a peace with the United States was brought before the Legislature. A resolution was adopted which declared " that the power of the State of New Jersey should be exerted to enable Congress to support the National Independence of America; and that whoever attempted any pacification between the States and Great Britain, implying the least subor- dination or dependence of the United States to or upon Great Britain, ought to be treated as an open and avowed enemy ; and that, although peace upon honorable terms is an object truly desirable, yet war, with all the calamities attending it, is incom- parably preferable to national dishonor and vassalage ; that the Legislature will maintain, support and defend the sovereign in- dependence of these States, and will exert the power therein to enable Congress to prosecute the war, until the independence of these United States shall be fully established.
. William Livingston was annually reelected Governor, with occasionally slight opposition, as long as he lived ; and with an interregnum from August 31st to November Ist, 1777, during which time there was no Governor, growing out of the fact that his term of office was one year, and the second Legislature under the Constitution did not meet until two months after his first term expired, he held the office of Governor and Chancellor of the State nearly fourteen years.
Judge Elmer, in his "Reminiscences," says: " It could not be otherwise than that the Governor of a State, situated as New Jersey was at this time, should be subject to constant alarm and danger. He was determined in his hostility to those who em- braced the cause of the enemy, and recommended and enforced the strongest measures against them, thereby of course exciting their bitter hostility. A letter from one of his daughters, dated in November, 1777, says: " K- has been to Elizabethtown ; found our house in a most ruinous situation. General Dickinson (an American. General) had stationed a captain with his artillery company in it, and after that it was kept for a bullock's guard. K- waited on the General, and he ordered the troops removed the next day, but then the mischief was done; everything is carried off that mamma had collected for her accommodation,
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so that it is impossible for her to go down to have the grapes and other things secured ; the very hinges, locks, and panes of glass are taken away."
Rivington's Gazette, the organ of the British party in New York, was very bitter in its denunciations of Livingston: He is called the "Spurious Governor," "Don Quixote of the Jer- seys," "Despot in chief in and over the rising State of New Jersey, extraordinary Chancellor of the same," "Knight of the most honorable order of starvation, and chief of the inde- pendents." "If Rivington is taken," he wrote in 1780, "I . must have one of his ears; Governor Clinton is entitled to the other; and General Washington, if he pleases, may take his head."
Popular as Livingston evidently was, he did not escape per- sonal hostility and bitter opposition. On the 27th of October, 1779, just before his reelection by the joint meeting, a virulent attack upon him, not by name, but by plain allusions, appeared in Collins's Gazette over the signature of "Cincinnatus."*
. When the termination of the war was celebrated throughout the State on the 19th of May, 1783, he delivered an address to the Legislature, in which he said: " Providence having been pleased to terminate the late war in a manner so honorable and advantageous to America, I most heartily congratulate you on the auspicious event ; but let us not flatter ourselves that because the war is over our difficulties are at an end. Perhaps at no particular moment during our conflict with Great Britain was there ever a greater necessity than at the present juncture for unanimity, vigilance, and exertion. The glory we have acquired in the war will be resounded through the universe. God forbid that we should ever tarnish it by any unworthy conduct in times of peace. We have established our character as a brave people, and exhibited to the world the most incontestable proofs that we are determined to sacrifice both life and fortune in defence of our liberties. Let us now show ourselves worthy of the inesti- mable blessings of freedom, by an inflexible attachment to public faith and national honor. Let us establish our character as a
* Elmer's Reminiscences, pages 67, 68.
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sovereign State on the only durable basis of impartial and univer- sal justice, for whatever plausible sophistry the artful may con- trive, or the avaricious be ready from self-interested motives to adopt, we may depend upon it, that the observation of the - wise man will, through all ages be found an incontrovertible truth, ' that righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin (of which injustice is one of the most aggravated) is the reproach of any people.'"
The long contest now concluded had been conducted under great disadvantages and difficulties. At the commencement no Continental government existed, and consequently no general provision had been made, and the government afterwards formed was so imperfect in its character that proper regulations and pro- visions if adopted, were frequently not observed. Beside this, the inexperience of the government and of the people, together with the pressing necessities of the time, led to an extension of engagements beyond the resources of the country ; hence extreme pecuniary embarrassment and great pecuniary loss were added to the numerous evils always incident to a state of war. By the depreciation and final sinking of the currency, not only was the action of the government impeded, but thousands of the people were injured, and many were entirely ruined. To meet existing obligations and make adequate provision for the future, were now the objects to be mainly regarded. The whole expense of the war was estimated at one hundred and thirty-five millions of dollars, including specie value of the bills advanced from the Continental treasury, reduced according to an established scale of depreciation. The whole amount of the debt of the United States in 1783 was estimated at forty-two millions, eight millions of which arose from foreign loans, and the remainder was due to American citizens. Obligations of a special character had also been formed in making provision for the officers and soldiers who had been engaged in the war. These classes had suffered the greatest hardships, not merely in their particular services, but from the want of proper supplies and the tardy and imperfect compensation they had received. To satisfy in some degree the- complaints that were made to Congress and the Commander-in- Chief, the latter recommended a half-pay establishment. Ac-
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cordingly, in May, 1778, Congress granted half-pay for seven years to all who should continue in service during the war, and a similar grant was afterwards made to the widows or orphans of such as had, or should die in the service. In 1780 a grant of half-pay for life was granted to the officers; but this was finally changed to five years' full pay.
Measures were taken by Congress to meet the present exigen- cies of the time. On the 18th of April, 1783, they declared that it was indispensably necessary to the restoration of public credit and to the discharge of the public debts, to vest Congress with power to levy certain specified duties on wines, teas, pepper, sugar, molasses, cocoa, and coffee, and a duty of five per cent. ad valorem on all other imported goods .* The States were also required to establish revenues in such manner as they should judge convenient for supplying their respective quotas of one million five hundred thousand dollars annually, exclusive of imports.
Congress urged, in the strongest manner, a compliance with these demands, appealing to the gratitude and pride, as well as the justice and plighted faith of the nation. The Legislature of New Jersey resolved that the address and recommendation of Congress should be printed and distributed throughout the State. On the 11th of June, an act was passed "to authorize the . United States in Congress assembled, to levy a duty on ceratin goods and merchandise imported into this State from any foreign port, island, or plantation," and nearly at the same time, an enactment was made for raising the sum of ninety thousand pounds by taxation for the exigencies of the year 1783. But the same degree of regard to the recommendations of Congress was not everywhere exhibited. Some of the States assented to the resolution respecting imports without hesitation, but others lingered, or only acceded upon condition that similar acts should be generally passed. The repeated and earnest representations of Congress finally prevailed with all the States except New York; but she persisted in refusal, and by her single negative
* It was proposed that these duties should continue for twenty-five years, and to be applied solely to the payment of the principal and interest of the public debt.
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finally defeated the measure. This failure was most prejudicial in its effects ; it not only tended in a great degree to render nugatory the efforts of Congress for the restoration and main- tenance of the National credit, but was also a cause of dissension among the States themselves. New Jersey complained that the refusal of other States to make the grant to Congress, and their separate enactments upon the subject, were unjust to the country, and operated injuriously upon her, rendering her unable to meet the demands of Congress, and particularly the demand for specie. A strong representation was made in consequence .*
* By a resolution of the Legislature passed February 20th, 1786, it was said "that the requisitions of Congress of April, 1783, for a general impost and revenue hath not been complied with by all the States, especially by the States of New York and Georgia (the latter afterwards acceded), though the requisition is founded upon the most just and equal principles, and being a measure, in the general opinion, absolutely necessary to the existence of the United States in their confederated capacity, while our neighboring States, by their State imposts, are draining this State of sums annually, to a much larger amount, as we have reason to suppose, than our quota of specie called for by the late requisition of Congress. That this House cannot, consistently with the duty they owe to their constituents, comply with the requisition of Congress of the 27th of December last, or any other requiring specie, until all the States of the Union shall comply with the requisition of Congress for an impost and revenue; or at least until the several States having the advan- tage of commerce which they now enjoy solely by the joint exertions of the United States, shall forbear exacting duties or imposts upon goods and mer- chandise for the particular benefits of their respective States, thus drawing revenues from those whose local circumstances will not admit of their enjoy- ing similar advantages."
In instructions to the Representatives in Congress, given March 2d, 1786, it was said: " When the revenue system of the 18th of April, 1783, was passed in Congress, we were in hopes that our situation between two commercial States would no longer operate to our detriment, and that those States, and others in their predicament, were at length convinced of the selfish and pal- pable injustice of subjecting others to their exactions, and then applying those exactions to the augmentation of their respective private revenues. As we are convinced that neither public credit can be supported, the public debts paid, or the existence of the Union maintained, without the impost revenue in some form, you are instructed to vote against each and every ordinance, resolution and proceeding whatever, which shall produce any expense to New Jersey for the promotion or security of the commerce of those States, or any of them, from which the Union in general, nor this State in particular, derives
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Besides this failure, the requisitions of Congress for direct con- tributions from the States, were but partially complied with ; the Government was compelled to resort to loans to pay even the interest on the foreign debt, and the interest on the domestic debt remained wholly unpaid.
On the 26th of October, 1787, in accordance with the resolu- tion of Congress that the Constitution framed by the delegates from the States should be submitted to the several States for their action thereon, the delegates from New Jersey reported the proceedings to the Legislature, with a copy of the Constitution and the resolutions of Congress. On the 27th the Legislature resolved that it should be recommended to such of the inhabitants of the State as were entitled to vote for representatives in the General Assembly, to meet in their respective counties at the places fixed by law for holding elections, on the fourth Tuesday of November next ensuing, to choose three persons to serve as delegates from each county in a State Convention ; that the dele- gates so chosen should meet in convention on the second Tues- day in December, to consider and decide upon the Constitution, and that the sheriffs of the respective counties should give timely notice to the people of the time, place, and purpose of holding the elections. These resolutions were embodied in an act authorizing the people of the State to meet and act in Conven-
any advantage until all the States shall adopt and carry into execution the impost above mentioned. To vote against each and every ordinance, resolu- tion, or proceeding which shall tend to charge this State with any expense for gaining possession of, or defending such territory claimed by, or which is to accrue to, the exclusive benefit of any particular State or States, and not to the Union at large."
The resolution of the House declining to comply with the requisition for the payment of specie, was noticed by Congress, and was a source of so much embarrassment that a committee, consisting of Charles Pinckney, Nathaniel Gorham and William Grayson, were appointed to remonstrate with the Assembly of New Jersey upon the subject. The Committee were heard. The House then resolved, " that being willing to remove as far as in their power every embarrassment from the counsels of the Union, and that the failure of supplies from temporary demands, though clearly evinced from ex- perience, may not be imputed to the State of New Jersey only, that the reso- lution of the 20th of February last, be and hereby is rescinded."
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